"'Zat You, Santa Claus?" Louis Armstrong Verve Remixed Christmas
"Zebra" The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs
"A Zed and 2 L's" Fila Brazillia Pure Chillout
"Zera A Reza" Caetano Veloso Noites Do Norte
"Zero" Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness
"Zero" Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz
"Zig Zag Wanderer" Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band Safe As Milk
"Ziggy Stardust" David Bowie The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars
"Zimbabwe" Bob Marley Songs Of Freedom [updated link b/c warner wiped out the last one - copyrant in future]
I don't know if it is naive to think music can effect any meaningful political change, or if I am just cynical and jaded at this point. Not only did people like Bob Marley, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Fela Kuti think that they could be significant beyond mere entertainment, but apparently people who did not particularly like them agreed with them. All of them were arrested or exiled. Marley was shot. Of course, Gil later became Brazil's minister of culture. And Rhodesia actually did become Zimbabwe, so maybe I am cynical. Whether any good comes from overtly political music, I guess no harm comes from it.
One problem with political music is that it is inherently dated - at the very least the lyrics become outdated, so you had best hope the music sustains. It is why something like "Joe Hill" seems like a museum piece. The acoustic folk of the '60s (and agit-prop & hardcore later) is tied both musically and lyrically, into a specific time. All that said, I think "Zimbabwe" holds up. Maybe reggae is still a going concern. Maybe Bob Marley is just better at it than most. Maybe it is the music - you don't need a history degree (or even a wiki search on Rhodesia) to appreciate the rhythm. It could be that there are enough vaguely stated universal truths in the song that it sustains (I particularly like the understated description of "overcome our little trouble"). Or maybe I just like Marley better than Joan Baez.
Also -
More Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O gets a lot of press for being physically attractive, which may be unfortunate, because it is her voice and the hook-laden exciting music that make the band enjoyable. The difference between the video here, and the one for "Y Control" make me worry that she might be reading the press clippings - much more focused on her (rather than the band or terrifying small children). The bedazzled "KO" jacket is so extreme I assume it is a joke.
Which may sum up every lyric ever written by Billy Corgan. And yet Smashing Pumpkins' guitars are so wonderful, Billy's whining and self-absorption gets a pass most of the time.
